"No one was left who could remember how it happened. How the world fell under darkness. At least no one who would do anything. No one who would oppose the robots. No one who would challenge their power. Or so Dr. Wily believed..."
The Protomen are two things:
1. An American rockband who present themselves as robot warriors who travel around, telling the tale of the world's most important robot fighters to anyone who will listen.
2. A rock-opera concept album trilogy about Mega Man, created by said rockband.
If you're reading this thread and haven't listened to their music... why are you still here? Go listen to my beloved scrungly Mega Man musical and watch all the fan animatics.
The reason I'm starting this thread: The Protomen are kick-fucking-ass and every song they make is like a realized, crystalized manifestation of perfect music. I was introduced to them by one of my closest friends at the beginning of college (I proceeded to get him hooked on Homestuck) and have listened to Acts I & II ad nauseum because they're great. And now, after 13 years of development--the same year of fucking deltarune and Silksong no less--Act III is in the process of being released. Every friday until the end of the year, they'll drop the next song from Act. The first two songs are out now (although only one of them is new)!
Anyways, I kinda just want to talk about the music and how it's great and that's this thread yay
"SURPRISE! WE'RE DOING IT NOW," the Protomen said calmly.
So I was wrong! As I often am, but being wrong is great in this case because I was wrong about the frequency and release of new songs! It's not every Friday but every Monday! And it's not just 1 song a week. We're getting 2 (although that's subject to change)!!!
Tracks 3 & 4 are now out and I am so GOD DAMMNED HAPPY about it! While track 3, The Trainyard, is just a short cool-sounding instrumental, track 4 is like my personal holy grail. No Way Back was previously only performed live and once ever at that! But in spite of that, it's one of my favorite songs the Protomen have ever written. AND NOW WE HAVE THE STUDIO VERSION!!!!
I didn't think it could get any better already, but not only did they make the build up to the song's climax somehow even more epic but they added an extended guitar solo!!! Just cus!!!
Also, obviously now we know that this song is being sung by Light, which I suppose is obvious in hindsight? Panther didn't do the voice during the live version and I suppose the lyrics could be interpreted as being from Mega Man's perspective? DOESNT MATTER!!! This song FUCKS. It SLAPS, it BANGS, it KILLS, it TEARS YOU APART SLOWLY. And this is only track 4! We're not even a third of the way through and I've already lost my fucking mind. I mean, how could I not? It's No Way Back! Go listen to it now and tell me it isn't just a gorgeous number to my fucking. face. You can't. The punchiness of the backup chorus, the increasing grittiness of the guitar as the song gets more intense, the emotion, the DESPERATION in Light's voice in that final chorus as he approaches presumably a confrontation 20 years in the making. The lyrics are just perfect, the way they incapsulate not only the turning point in the story but the yearning of Light to somehow fix things by avoiding this moment, by running away, by going back in time to a short and vague period he "can't even remember" well anymore, juxtaposed against the chanting chorus of "There's no way back! We can't go back!" As if the people of the city are not only pushing him forward encouragingly, but at the same time fighting his final breath of optimism with their general doomsaying. It's marvelous!!!
Sorry I yap to nobody here but fuck you this is my experience! It can be yours too, though (if you listen to the Protomen ::::::::::))))))))
I'd honestly given up on ever getting Act III.
I was 100% backing the "we don't need an act 3 it's fine and it'll have to be fine cuz it's never coming out" train literally up until the announcement at the beginning of the month. i figured that since we got 5 songs released from it prior that we could just piece the general story together.